Unemployed seeking fewer good paying, full-time jobs

Maggie Tonascie is a mother of five children and has been looking for a full-time job with benefits for about two years.

"Its been very difficult, its been very challenging, I'm doing a career change", Tonascie says.

Tonascie says she's looking for a job that will accommodate her family life and meet her employment objectives.

"Because I like to persevere, I like to teach my children to go forward", Tonascie says about her desire to find a job, "I had a career and I wanted to be home with my children and so now is a good time to go back out there."

Diving into the details of the latest national unemployment figures, there is now the largest non-participation rate of jobless workers in the country in more than 30 years.

More and more unemployed adults are simply giving up trying to find a full time job with benefits and are removing themselves from the workforce.

"I can understand because you are competing against a younger generation and so you get passed by", Tonascie says, "but if you are staying up with your skills and you just continue to move forward you will find ajob."

At least one local economist predicts a growing job market on the Central Coast.

"The growth of jobs is going to continue to be in the farm sector, so that behooves mostly the north county of Santa Barbara", says economist Mark Schniepp of the California Economic Forecast, "mostly professional services, you'll see a little bit of uptick in construction jobs because you have a lot more projects breaking ground particularly in the north county, housing and non-residential and commercial types of construction, so look for a little bit of an uptick in construction workers."

The unemployment rate on the Central Coast is hovering around 6 percent.